Quick-service restaurants are dependent upon drive-through customers for profitability. A typical quick-service restaurant may sell 50% of its food products to drive-through customers. A good deal of drive-through sales occurs during peak hours, such as during a lunch hour or around dinner time. During these peak hours, it is important that a quick-service restaurant efficiently service its drive-through customers, so that it might sell to more drive-through customers.
Oftentimes, it is difficult for the management of a particular quick-service restaurant to come to an understanding of its efficiency with respect to servicing drive-through customers. Management often lacks precise measurements that allow drive-through service efficiency to be understood from different angles. Such information would permit management to understand what aspect of the restaurant operation needs addressing.
One difficulty in attempting to generate such data has been in collecting the data. A quick-service restaurant is often unable to afford to hire extra personnel devoted to the task of gathering information regarding its operation. Another difficulty is that even if such efficiency data is gathered, it is difficult to put such data in context, so as to understand whether a particular measurement is good or bad for a quick-service restaurant. Thus, management may not be able to anticipate the level of improvement that is realizable with respect to a particular aspect of their operation.
As is evident from the foregoing, there is a need for an efficiency metric gathering system that is deployable in quick-service restaurants. A desirable system will utilize exisiting equipment, be relatively inexpensive, and be flexible with respect to the kinds of efficiency metrics that are measured. A desirable system will also provide a context for the generated efficiency data, so that management is able to judge such data intelligently.